Introducing: Ranked Mode

As many of you know, we’ve been working to add a skill-based ranking system to PUBG for quite some time. Ranked Mode provides an additional challenge for experienced players, allowing them to climb the ranks and see where they stand among other players. Ranked will be an ever-evolving core feature of the game going forward and comes with many things to understand, so let’s go over some of the design goals and launch features. We plan to dive deeper into specific pieces in the coming weeks and months.

Goals

Provide an official way to measure skill in PUBG that shares inspiration and direction with PUBG Esports

Provide new ways for players to show off their skill and status to each other

Provide an environment specially tuned for serious PVP only competition

Provide a new queue that divides ranked from normal play, allowing their rules and settings to evolve independently and

with separate purpose

Provide a different atmosphere for Ranked play by introducing a special Ranked lobby and additional post game details

Provide new unique seasonal rewards, reserved for Ranked players of a given season

Introduce new systems that aim to help protect the integrity of Ranked games and leaderboard

How does a Season work?

At the start of each new Ranked season, all player rankings will be set to an unranked state. Players will need to complete their placement matches for each mode (TPP/FPP) they wish to play in to determine their starting rank. Your previous ranks will have an impact on placement in future seasons, however Platinum V is the placement rank cap regardless of previous performance.

As the season plays out, your matches will earn you RP that raises and lowers your Rank Tier and Division. At the end of the season, rewards will be given out based on your highest placement in the season. We’ll talk more about what those rewards are a bit further down.

What rules will be used?

64 players, FPP / TPP Squad only

Random Map (Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok)

No Redzone, No Bots.

The timing and the speed of the Blue Zone has been adjusted for more intense gameplay

Ranked will use a variation of the SUPER settings/loot that PUBG Esports uses, which focus on 64 player squad oriented play. Ranked settings mean more loot in your hands faster, a more competition-focused bluezone, and by very popular demand, NO Redzone. Ranked Mode will use the same maps used in the pro circuit: Erangel, Miramar, and Sanhok, which will be chosen randomly each match. Finally, there will be no bots in Ranked Mode.

We made the decision to support both FPP and TPP. Although FPP is the main mode for esports, TPP is the most popular mode with normal players. We’re keeping the focus on squad play to start, but players can also choose 1, 2 or 3 person squads. FPP and TPP will be ranked separately, with the highest achieved rank in either mode determining the rewards you earn that season.

There are a few other differences between Normal and Ranked matches as well. For example, crossbows and Motorgliders do not currently spawn in Ranked mode. We expect that there will be a lot of discussions about the rules and balance settings used in Ranked Mode, and will be listening to your feedback as we plan and evolve each system.

What about cheaters and penalties?

As TS discussed in his Community Letter a couple weeks ago, new restrictions will be in place to help preserve the integrity of Ranked matches.

Players may be required to authenticate their account using a unique phone number and reach a minimum level in Survival Mastery to play Ranked matches. If an SMS verified account becomes permanently banned, the device used to link the account also becomes banned, preventing it from being used again for another account.

Note: SMS authentication is not required for players on Console.

Being a skilled player means being able to perform at a high level under many different conditions. To that end we are introducing penalties in ranked mode for players who try to get around the random map selection. Players who try to “dodge” a game while still in the lobby will find themselves needing to wait out a timer before queuing up again. In addition, if a player leaves a game early, it will be recorded as if they had died at the time of leaving. This includes any RP loss that would normally occur.

Players are free to form their own teams with their friends but will not be able to queue for a match unless all players are within two Ranked Tiers of each other. The queue will also be unable to start if any player on the team is currently facing a ranked matchmaking restriction.

Any players who become permanently banned will be removed from the Leaderboards.

What can I earn?

Rewards are a time honored tradition of Ranked play. Being able to show off your accomplishments season over season is important to you and we want to give you cool stuff to allow for that.

Let’s start off with the main event. A ranked skin set will be awarded to all players who achieve the rank of Gold V or higher in any queue. The exact skins in the set will change for each season, but the designs will share a distinct Ranked aesthetic. It should be easy for anyone to tell at a glance that you’re using a ranked reward skin even if they can’t remember exactly which season it’s from. This skin set will be unique for each ranked season and won’t be offered anywhere else, so you’ll need to work hard and participate if you don’t want to miss any of these cool rewards!

All players who at least finish their placement matches will also receive a unique nameplate and emblem for their PUBG ID at the end of the ranked season. These ranked rewards will allow players to show off what tier they were able to achieve on their PUBG ID. For the best of the best among you, the Top 500 players in each region will find that the ranked nameplate and emblem set they receive will have something extra in the design to recognize them as a step above the other Masters.

Players can also earn progress toward all Season Pass Missions while playing in Ranked Mode.

Closing thoughts

Ranked mode is an important feature, and there are a lot of different opinions globally. We appreciate all of the discussions, ideas, and feedback on the topic. Ranked rules, settings, maps and perspectives will continue to evolve and we look forward to continuing to expand the feature.